AC Milan and Benfica kick start their Europa League campaigns at San Siro tonight in a fixture that has only been a Champions League one throughout history.
Milan will return to the European stage with perhaps their toughest test in this league phase, at home against one of the other pre-tournament favourites. The Portuguese giants have begun the season well under Marco Silva, and will arrive full of confidence.
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The rather interesting news is that both Ruben Amorim and his counterpart are expected to rotate quite a bit. There will reportedly be no Mario Gila, Luka Modric, Diego Moreira, Christian Pulisic or Adrien Rabiot for Milan. Benfica meanwhile will bench the likes of Pavlidis, Prestianni, Rafa Silva, Araujo and Barrenechea.
AC Milan vs. Benfica: Five key battles
One of the big battles that the game hinges on is the one on Milan’s right side between Filippo Terracciano and Andreas Schjelderup. It will be a first start of the season for the Italian, who was rather surprisingly retained after returning from loan by Amorim.
He will fill in for Gila who should get a rest, but faces a very tough match-up against Schjelderup. The Norwegian had an impressive World Cup after a season with 12 goal contributions in the league, and he will be tasked with creating for the other forward options.
On the same side of the field, Samuel Chukwueze will be the man that Milan look to in order to provide service and to help create overloads in transition. The Nigerian faces an ongoing battle to keep his spot in the side, so another performance where he makes the different in both phases could be crucial.
Marco Silva meanwhile is expected to rely on Samuel Dahl at left-back, someone who has started all six games in the league so far. The 23-year-old Swede seems to be one of his established men already, and he will be tasked with limiting Chukwueze’s range of influence on the Rossoneri’s right side.
The midfield will be crucial in determining the balance of the contest, and Ardon Jashari is expected to get his first minutes since the league opener against Torino. The Swiss has a big opportunity to showcase that he is not only a reliable option but perhaps also a strong contender to take the starting spot from the struggling Luka Modric more regularly.
Given that Yunus Musah should play more as the box-to-box man, Jashari’s opponent is likely to be one of Benfica’s big summer signings: Heorhiy Sudakov. He is yet to register a goal or assist in five league appearances for the Eagles, but what a place and what a night this would be to start finding form.
If Omari Hutchinson does start as he is reported to, it is a big opportunity for him. The summer arrival from Nottingham Forest had a bright cameo off the bench against Lazio at the weekend, and with his buy-out set at €50m as part of his loan, he will have to build on that in order to keep demonstrating he is worth that much.
Benfica’s left-sided holding midfielder is expected to be Fredrik Aursnes, who has become an important player since his arrival. He has played just 58 minutes in the Primeira Liga thus far though, so it could be a bit of a litmus test for the 30-year-old Norwegian.
Finally, it would be remiss of us not to mention the duel between Goncalo Ramos and Clement Lenglet. Ramos was in Benfica’s academy from 2013 to 2019 and then graduated to the first team via Benfica B, scoring 41 goals in 106 appearances for the senior side and firing them to the title in 2022-23. He would earn a big-money move to PSG from that, and then a club-record switch to Milan.
Lenglet meanwhile is a very experienced customer having played for Barcelona and Atletico Madrid in recent years. The centre-back is no stranger to big European nights and he has even faced the Diavolo twice already, for Spurs in their Champions League last-16 exit in the 2022-23 campaign. Ramos said he won’t celebrate if he scores; Lenglet will want to make sure he doesn’t even have the choice.
I have seen 3-4 different starting line-ups floated by various publications – waiting for the official. Seems hard to believe that neither Pulisic nor Moreira would get a start. Maybe the plan is to get to halftime at 0-0 and throw the attacking players at Benfica in the 2nd half?
The 11’s I have seen with Omari and Cisse in front of Musah and Jashiri are progressively better teams then this time last year; we have the impact subs and the team Is compact young and athletic, I am really looking forward to it and hope that Comotto and Camarda get a run out.
It should be squad of the 16 -18 first team era and hopefully the next 2 transfer window will help us achieve that
Right? If only we could field an entire starting 11 of 18-20 year olds, we’d be all set! /s
poluvrijeme 0 – 5
We should rotate and experiment especially at the beginning of the season. And why is there an outrage about managing Pulišić minutes. He’s fragile and prone to reccuring injuries which happened exactly because he was rushed into first eleven by previous coaches.
My issue is this. We have a few tough Europa games. And this might be the toughest. If you win this game, you can really experiment with the lesser games. But if we lose to Benfica, and Bournmouth, it puts more pressure on Milan to win the other games. Meaning less rotation.
In terms of Pulisic. He has been Milan’s best player over the last 3 years, AND he looked dominant against Lazio. Why not use him against the toughest opponents?